Faith Hogan, author of 'The Women at Ocean's End' - Uplit author discusses discovering your voice, being a happy pantser and finding the right career

Writer's Routine

Dan Simpson

Arts, Hobbies, Books, Leisure

4.9 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we're chatting to award-winning global bestseller, Faith Hogan.

Faith has published many uplit/ women's fiction novels - the last one 'The Bookshop Ladies' won the An Post Irish Book Award for Best Popular Fiction Novel of the Year. Faith's writing journey has taken her from working in many different jobs, never quite sure if she will admit that she wants to be a writer, to becoming a Kindle #1 bestseller across the world. We discuss how she's ended up finally being a full-time writer. Faith has also published crime fiction as Geraldine Hogan.

Her novels are often set on fictional Irish islands, which help her bring to life specific elements of the story - she reveals why. Also, she's a perfectly happy pantser, and we discuss what Faith needs to know before starting her novels. You can hear how she knows her readers so well, what drew her to write Uplit, and what a Faith Hogan novel needs to be.

Her new novel is 'The Women at Ocean's End', here's the blurb -

Constance Macken, in her ninth decade, is looking back on a life filled with laughter and loss, tragedy and triumph, but knows it is time to right the wrongs from her past that have always haunted her.

Heather Banks arrives on the island to bury her mother. Already adrift with her business sold and her divorce finalised this may be the perfect opportunity to change the course of her future.

Ros Stokes has managed to slip into the perfect job, the perfect cottage and friends that feel like family. However, when the stitches of her life begin to unravel, she must find a way to hold onto the things that have become most dear to her and let go of what holds her back.

Now, in a faded art deco house near the ocean's end, these women must come together to save the house they love, and each other, because they might have run from their troubles but only time will tell if they can overcome their past.

This episode is sponsored by Faber Academy's 'Writing a Novel' course. Find out how it covers everything you need to master your craft - https://faberacademy.com/writing-a-novel/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, welcome along to a brand new episode of writers' routine this week chatting to the
0:13.6	uplit author Faith Hogan. Faith has won writing awards, worked all manner of jobs, and is a global bestseller. She's back with a new
0:23.0	novel, The Women at Oceans End. We talk about finding her voice, also why she needs a character
0:29.3	and a place to star and then is happy panting along with it. I knew where I wanted it to go,
0:34.5	and I knew where I wanted that character's legacy to end up.
0:38.1	And I suppose once I had that and I had the island, it was like a clean slate and that was
0:43.8	exciting in some ways. And it also gave me lots of scope for kind of meandering down paths as I wrote.
0:51.1	And those paths will often bring you to twists in the road of your plot. And if you follow
0:56.1	them, you can either end up sinking at sea or you can end up with a great story. And thankfully
1:01.8	for me, I think I've ended up with a good story at the end of it. And with many novels in the
1:06.4	can now and awards picked up along the way with a dedicated readership. How does she know what a
1:12.5	Faith Hogan novel needs to be? My readers have always come to my books to escape. And they
1:18.0	escape to a place that is, I won't say everything works out well for everybody, but they are
1:23.6	uplifting reads. And so when the reader finishes the book, I would hope that they would talk the book to their chest and say,
1:29.7	oh.
1:31.0	And that is my intention when I write the books,
1:33.7	that I make the world for a reader a better place.
1:37.2	It's all on the way in a brand new episode of writers' routine.
1:39.7	Music This week's episode of writers' routine is sponsored by Faber Academy, whose flagship course is back.
1:56.7	It's the writing-a-novel course that you can get onto in person if you're in the UK.
2:01.2	It's online as well if you're a little further afield.
2:04.2	And it's not just a course, it's a commitment to your craft.
	...

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